Three months after he received a lenient punishment for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman at Stanford University, Brock Turner left the Santa Clara County Main Jail on Friday morning, having served half of a six-month sentence that drew a furious public response.

Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was widely criticized for levying a six-month jail sentence rather than the six-year prison term prosecutors had sought. And the judge’s comments that day — he said of Turner, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.” — fueled talk of race and privilege both in America’s criminal justice system and on its college campuses.